Refining - Biofuels

The nation has promoted biofuel use to help absorb rising supplies of the world’s most-traded cooking oil and to cut carbon emissions. The country boosted the mandated amount of blending in diesel to 10% from 7.5% in 2013, and ordered power plants to mix 20% in 2014.

EPA’s request for the new biofuel data comes as it’s more than 15 months behind a statutory deadline to issue requirements under the Renewable Fuels Standard for how much biofuels refiners should have used in 2014, and four months late in releasing targets for this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which swept to power in May, has set itself unprecedented targets for clean energy and has increased taxes on use of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum amid mounting international pressure to curb emissions.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, backed by state corn-grower and renewable-fuels associations and the Washington-based biofuels lobby Growth Energy, on Thursday formed America’s Renewable Future, to make the Renewable Fuels Standard an issue in the 2016 race.

Petrobras said it would continue to sell gasoline at prices that are about 60% higher than prices abroad. That’s welcome news for Brazil’s ethanol industry, the biggest producer of the biofuel after the US.